Sketchup / Shapeways

Over the last few weeks, I decided to learn how to use Sketchup. I like to learn new things, and this was a challenge! Also, there had been a post going around on TheRailWire.net about modifying a Kato F40PH to it's "rebuilt" model.

The original poster wanted his VIA engines to have the correct look, and I wanted my NJT F40's to have their correct look. Basically, during the rebuild, the F40's rear nose was chopped and moved all the way aft about 3-4 feet and new body constructed to cover the new CAT HEP generator. There are variations between how VIA did it, and what the NJT models look like.

Of course, rather than start with something "simple" to learn Sketchup, I dove right in to try my hand at creating the "addition" to the F40. Yeah... compound angles, fans, headlamps, doors... I bit off more than I could chew.

Complexity has it's merits, however, and following the excellent SketchUp tutorial videos actually accelerated my learning. In the end, I came up with a decent looking part, IMHO.

2014-JAN-12 EDIT:My Shapeways order came in, and the parts were off by 6 scale inches. Not bad for my first attempt. I know what I did wrong - an error in scaling from feet/inches to final n-scale in millimeters!

New parts have been ordered and they are in production. I'm even happy with how the "wrong" parts came out.

Here's a screen-cap of my part at Shapeways.